It has become harder than ever before to keep children away from screens.

With our fast-paced lifestyles and heavy reliance on phones, televisions and laptops in our adult lives, trying to maintain the innocence of childhood when they are targeted with endless digital marketing is a daily struggle.

So if you’re wondering what to buy your youngster — or a child in the family — this Christmas, look no further than a genius brand looking to highlight just how much fun screen-free time can be.

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Toniebox is an adorable — and huggable — musical storybox that actually enhances our children’s vocabulary, boosts their ability to sleep and provides hours of entertainment for kids as young as three.

That’s right, after initial adult set up of the easy-to-put-together $199 “box” toddlers can use it all on their own, with $29 hand-painted figurines of all of their favourite show and movie characters placed on top to play music and fairytales.

WHAT ARE TONIES?

The figurines are sized just so that little hands can manoeuvre the audio system alone so busy parents won’t even have to monitor them while game play is transpiring.

The Tonies — as the figurines are called — make for a great additional present for supplementary birthdays and Christmases so the adventure with other characters can long continue.

Whether your little one is interested in The Gruffalo, PAW Patrol, The Wiggles or Disney, there’s a Tonie for every Aussie child ready to transform their playtime.

Plenty of parents use the Toniebox as a way of playing without the use of screens but it can also be used a wind down activity before bed.

Simply squeeze an ear on the top of the Toniebox to increase or decrease the volume, tap the sides of the box to change chapters or tilt the squishy box to fast-forward or rewind.

HOW DO THE TONIES WORK?

To bring the Tonies to life all you need to do is place one of the characters onto a Toniebox to hear a pre-recorded range of songs and stories.

There is a small NFC chip hidden in every Tonie that allows it to connect to the Toniebox.

This tells your Toniebox which story it needs to play.

If you want to use your Toniebox for the first time, you need to set it up on your WiFi and with the help of the mytonies app.

All content you own is now available to you at any time and anywhere through the app.

All Tonies that have been activated on your Toniebox are saved in your household.

There is one other layer of the Tonies universe worth knowing about: Creative-Tonies.

These special figurines can store up to 90 minutes of audio content and you and your child can personalise them whichever way you like through the mytonies app.

WHAT ARE PARENTS SAYING ABOUT TONIEBOX?

Tonies, which are available at Big W in Australia, have caught the attention of hundreds of parents.

“My daughter, who is four, LOVES her Toniebox. Best purchase we’ve made. She loves the Tonie figures.... She listens to it every night before bed and we use it in the car for long trips as opposed to a tablet,” one woman wrote on Reddit.

“We love the Toniebox at our house. My 3.5 year old got it two years ago for Christmas. At first he liked how it started and stopped when he put the Tonie on and off, and enjoyed the music. Now he’s more into the characters and picking the songs, and my one-year-old is fascinated by it too,” wrote another.

A third added: “My kid loves the Toniebox. The figures get played with as toys and listened to”.

With Christmas just around the corner there has never been a better time to enter the Tonies world — and bring your child along with you.

Purchase the Toniebox and Tonies from Big W.